Israel-PLO peace accord gets stormy 'yes' vote

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- In an address to Israel's parliament, Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin urged lawmakers to give peace a chance, although
he had to shout to do it.

The 120-member parliament, or the Knesset, passed the peace deal with
the PLO on Thursday by a narrow vote of 61 to 59. The deal expands
Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank beyond Gaza and Jericho. The
agreement was signed on September 28 at the White House by Rabin and
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.

Before the vote, Rabin rallied to muster last-minute support for the
deal from legislators. Passage was hard won. There were 15 hours of
stormy debate in which members of Rabin's own party argued against the
accord. As Rabin addressed the parliament, he ended up shouting his
message to stop a never-ending circle of violence as his opposers
yelled their disapproval. Every member of parliament spoke on the
agreement before the vote.

Outside the parliament building, nearly 20,000 Israeli protesters
opposed to the accord scuffled with police. They threw torches at
police and stoned the car of at least one cabinet minister making his
way into parliament. One protester said that Rabin would be killed if
he emerged from the building. Later, they surrounded it.

The accord calls for an Israeli troop withdrawal from Palestinian towns
by the end of the year, the deployment of 12,000 armed Palestinian
police in the West Bank, and Palestinian general elections by spring.
Government opponents say that the agreement is a foreshadowing, and
that it would lead the way for the establishment of a Palestinian state
in all of the land Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

Rabin, seeking to regain some political ground, ruled out a
Palestinian state and promised to keep Jews in parts of the West
Bank.

In 1993, a landmark accord was reached between Israel and the Palestine
Liberation Organization that launched Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and
Jericho. That first agreement, reached after decades of hostility,
received solid support in Israel's parliament, passing by a vote of
61-50. Since then, Rabin's coalition has shrunk and maverick
legislators have crossed lines on the peace issue.

Negotiations between Israel and the PLO on the final status
of the West Bank and Gaza will open next year.

While Israel ponders the question of peace, hundreds of Palestinians
are stranded at the Libyan-Egyptian border.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is opposed to the peace accord and has
been pushing Palestinians to leave Libya and return to Palestinian
self-ruled areas. Demonstrations erupted when he visited the area
Wednesday and spoke to refugees.